Bush pushes the blame on Arafat

By David SangerCrawford, TexasApril 1 2002

Breaking a two-day silence on events in the Middle East, President George Bush said he held Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, personally responsible for the waves of suicide bombings in Israel, and strongly sided with the Israeli Government even while warning that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should temper military action to preserve a "path for peace".

Speaking from the gates of his ranch on Saturday, during a driving rainstorm, he pointedly made no effort to sound evenhanded about who was to blame for the rising violence.

Several times he sidestepped opportunities to assess Israel's decision to raid Mr Arafat's compound, and he made no mention of the UN resolution on Saturday that called on Israel to pull its forces back from Ramallah, where the compound is situated - even though the United States had voted in favour of the measure just hours before Mr Bush spoke.

Instead, Mr Bush focused most of his comments on Mr Arafat, suggesting that the suicide bombing attacks "aren't just isolated incidents" and maintaining that Mr Arafat has the power to slow them down, if not turn them off.

"Yasser Arafat should have done more three weeks ago, and should do more today," Mr Bush said, speaking in the glorified trailer where he conducts his daily national security briefings with principal aides in Washington through a secure videoconference facility set up on the Texas prairie. At another point Mr Bush said of Mr Arafat, "I believe he needs to stand up and condemn, in Arabic, these attacks," and use his security forces to stop the bombers before they strike Israeli citizens. ");document.write("

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Mr Bush's strong statement went beyond similar comments on Friday by Secretary of State Colin Powell. They were also striking for their clear association of the Palestinian leader with almost daily acts of terrorism, exactly the kind of comments the White House has tried to avoid in recent weeks for fear of further undercutting the chances of peace talks.

On Saturday, however, Mr Bush stressed that the administration had received "assurances" from Israel that Mr Arafat would not be killed or harmed in any way, though one of his foreign policy advisers noted late on Friday that "we are worried about an accident, a shootout, a disaster".

Mr Bush has not spoken directly to Mr Sharon since the Israeli military offensive in Ramallah began, though a senior administration official suggested on Saturday night that such a call might be placed soon. Nor has Mr Bush talked to the besieged Mr Arafat, and he suggested that he would not attempt direct contact.

Mr Bush made a series of other phone calls on Saturday to affirm to Arab leaders that he remained committed to the peace process and planned to keep Anthony Zinni in the Middle East in the hope that talks might resume.

But administration officials acknowledged that while the President had to keep alive talk of a peace process, his comments were detached from the reality in Jerusalem. And Mr Bush, at times drumming his fingers on a conference table, had the demeanour of a man who recognised the limits of his powers of persuasion, and had few illusions that he had the ability to change Mr Sharon's strategy or Mr Arafat's use of terror.

Still, he tried to bolster Mr Arafat's credibility as the leader of the Palestinians even while he condemned him.

"He's got a lot of people that listen to him still," Mr Bush said. "He's got to make it absolutely clear that the Palestinian Authority does not support these terrorist activities, and use the security forces to prevent them from happening."

Mr Bush called on all Arab leaders to condemn the suicide bombings - and spoke specifically about Syria and Iran, believed to support the terrorist groups mounting the attacks - but his aides acknowledged that they did not expect Arab leaders to respond to the appeal.

Mr Bush expressed great sympathy for Israel, saying its leaders had no option but to respond.